I decided to break down the comparisons between me and my parents like the OP. As usual i went into too many useless details. nobody will read that. Ah well who cares.
On politics:
My parents are left wing and so am I. My dad has a little sprinkle of right in his political views sometimes i find mainly on money matters (probably because he owned a business) but by an large, very left. They're also separatists (i live in Quebec, for those who still don't get it, look it up, i'm not gonna get into it) which i am not really. Or at least it doesn't really matter that much to me either way. Different generation, different realities. We pretty much all always end up voting for the same parties except on the federal level ive voted differently once or twice. They were still left wing parties.
On religion:
My mom has a spiritual side but she is not religious per se. She doesn't believe in god but she believes in something somehow... not sure how she defines it. My dad was from a pretty religious family (catholics here) and yet he isnt. Doesnt go to church, never owned a bible, etc. But yet I have a feeling that becaus eof his upbringing, while he never said so, he might possibly believe in god. It just never really came up. I am agnostic.
On education:
My dad only has high school diploma then he went straight to labor school. He's a machinist by formation but most of his professional life he owned a business. My mom dropped out in college. I did one semester of college and dropped out....
On finances:
My dad was born VERY lower class, my mom probably would have been defined as lower middle class at best..or upper lower class. When we were a family (meaning when they were married and I was a kid and teen) we were middle class (i found out years later my parents made loads more money than i thought at one point but my dad, because he had known misery, was always frugal). My dad has 17 brothers and sisters. His parents were uneducated farmers but they were smart somehow, they knew their kids needed an education so they sent them to be educated by the catholic priests (they also had to get them out of the house as soon as possible). The majority of my 17 uncles and aunts fared pretty well. One is a millionaire. Two were high school teachers. One was a programmer when that kid of things was still obscure as ****. The list goes on, most succeeded well.
My dad ran a motorsports business for 25 years or so with his brother and did well. My grandparents are dead now (i never knew my paternal granddad) but i respect them a lot for what they did for their kids. Most of them became comfortable middle class. Since my parents split 18 years back, my dad is still middle class and enjoying a good retirement, while my mom is pretty poor. She kinda made terrible choices money wise in her life and still working many jobs at 58.
I am very lower class in income. I make about ten times less cash in a year that my dad did while he ran his business. Money is not a priority for me though. As long as i can pay the bills and food.
On marital status and children:
My parents are divorced, i am unmarried and unlikely to ever be. I have a 6 years partner but marriage is not something that we plan to do. I just don't think its necessary. My parents had me and my brother. I don't plan to have kids. Neither does my brother who is also unmarried.
On employment/job:
My parents both worked, my mom started as a secretary then became accountant/secretary for my dad's business (which at the time really was THEIR business, she co owned it with my dad and an uncle). When they split, she sold her share of the business, she did varous small jobs first, tried to start a business that failed...got into Amway and Herbalife later (yeah don't ask....) but all through this she was also a dance teacher, performed professionally alone or with her students, and she also at some point became a professional massage therapist (she studied for that). My dad was a machinist before he owned the business, he had an accident that got him to lose part of his finger, after that he couldn't go back to his old job and he bought a motorsports business in the late 70's and ran it until the mid 2000's when he sold it and retired.
Me and my gf are both artistic, and have bad anxiety issues that makes it so we're not very good at traditional jobs. We earn money in various (legal) ways that generally don't involve holding down a job per se. I'm not good at 9 to 5. And by not good i mean, it brought me on the brink of suicide before. It's not worth it to me. I prefer no car and a small apartment and no luxuries over having my mental health deteriorate to that point again.
My parents are both baby boomers (1945 for my dad, 1956 for my mom), i'm a Gen X'er (1978). So is my gf (1972).
On interests/hobbies:
My mom is artistic too having been a dancer. I probably owe her my early interest in music. She didnt play (well not true, she can play some piano but we didnt have one) but listened to a lot of music. My dad has no artistic inclinations whatsoever and no sense of rhythm. Though i've seen him mold a brick of metal into a remote controlled plane 6 cylinders engine and that to me is pretty much art...(though he did follow a plan
). Building and flying RC planes used to be his hobby for years. Now its more biking (has been for about 15 years) though he still does work metal. He's 67, i'm 35, and he could kick my ass any day without breaking a sweat.
They are both terrific cooks. I hate cooking (though could be a decent cook if i bothered..i think). Its funny cause in their approach to cooking my mom is very artistic..she'll improvise anything, my dad is mathematical, he can make his own recipes sure but he needs to know the exact measurements he used and he'll refine them until it's perfect.
My interest and hobbies hmm...well...I'm into video games a lot. Unsuprisingly neither of them are
.(though my dad used to have a RC plane simulator he "played")
